Georgetown had not been to the sloop national championships since 1998, but that did not stop the Hoyas from making a run at the title.

Though Georgetown led the pack after the second day of racing Saturday, the team ended up finishing the regatta in second – the same place the Hoyas earned seven years ago. UC-Irvine took the crown on Gull Lake in Richland, Mich., edging Georgetown by four points.

“We could have easily won,” Georgetown Head Coach ike Callahan said. “When you have a day or so to digest it, it’s a really good finish. We’re really happy. It would’ve been nice to come back as a national champion, but second place isn’t bad.”

The event may have a silly name, but the competition is far from it. Harvard, for example, came in last of the 10 teams – and the Crimson are the reigning owners of collegiate sailing’s top award, the Fowle Trophy.

Callahan said that he was happy with the finish because it “helps us in our quest for the Fowle Trophy,” in which the Hoyas took runner-up honors last year.

“It’s an exciting finish for Georgetown, no doubt about that,” senior skipper Andrew Campbell said, but he called it a “heartbreaking experience” at the same time.

Georgetown had the upper hand after the first two days of racing, five points ahead of Irvine and up by 10 on Minnesota. During the first seven races the Hoyas missed the top three only once.

Campbell said that the conditions on Saturday, which saw six races completed, were “pretty unstable.”

“A lot of the time that we spent practicing really paid off in those kinds of conditions,” he said. “We really made our transitions a lot better than other teams. During the course of that stretch, we really showed we had better boat-handling and better patience.”

Georgetown could not carry their hot streak into Sunday’s three races, though, and the Hoyas saw their lead slip away as their finishes fell from sixth to seventh to ninth.

Going into the last race, Georgetown was one point behind Irvine, and the two went into a duel. “We were going at each other, ignoring the fleet,” something which contributed to the team’s poor finish, the Hoyas’ Assistant Coach Bill Ward said.

According to Campbell, “the range of breeze direction was big” on Sunday. “It was a lot less on the transitions and a lot more on playing your odds and being in the right place at the right time.”

“Personally I’m very disappointed with the way I sailed on Sunday,” Campbell said. “We threw away the national championship.”

Campbell still had praise for his crews in the regatta, juniors Dan Esdorn and Seamus Kraft. “Dan and Seamus were great. … I was really pumped that they got to go,” Campbell said, adding that it was the first big events for the two. “I think that was huge for them. They brought a lot to the table.”

But perhaps the biggest reason why Georgetown why was able to break into the top-tier of sloops was the guidance of Ward (MSB ’96), the Hoyas’ assistant coach. Sloops is unusual in collegiate racing, because it involves at least three people to a boat that measures over 19 feet. Ward was the first Hoya to qualify for sloops nationals in 1996 as an undergraduate, and he focused on coaching the sloops sailors throughout the fall.

“We focused on the event this year,” he said. “We worked really hard … to devote the time that we had to prepare for it.”

All that effort paid off for Georgetown, Ward said, even if the team does not have the trophy to prove it.

“I’m really happy with the finishes,” Ward said. “It’s a little difficult because we had a shot to win. We came up a little short, but it was a good finish.”

The Hoyas were also in action last weekend at the War Memorial Regatta, the Princeton Women’s Fall Open and the Henry Luce Regatta, to which Georgetown played host. Results were not available as of Monday night.